Debate today

Candidates in the 119th Assembly District race will participate in a public forum on higher education and health-care issues at 2-3:30 p.m. today at Upstate Medical University, Weiskotten Hall, 766 Irving Ave., in the ninth floor auditorium. The event is sponsored by the United University Professions and Upstate Medical University.

Voter guide

Find and compare more than 100 candidates running for office this November in Congressional, New York State, and local races in CNY in the syracuse.com Voter Guide.

Syracuse, NY -- The common wisdom in the 119th Assembly District is that the Democratic candidate, whoever it is, has a virtual lock on the job.

There are 35,659 Democratic voters, compared with 21,171 Republicans, in the district, which wraps around and through Syracuse, consisting of the towns of Salina, DeWitt and Onondaga and parts of the east and south sides of the city.

The Democratic candidate for the Assembly seat being vacated by 20-year Assembly veteran Joan Christensen is former Onondaga County Legislator Sam Roberts.

Roberts, 54, of Syracuse, said he knows the voter registration numbers should give him an advantage on Tuesday.

“You get your vote out, you win,” he said.

His opponents are senior deputy Onondaga County attorney John Sharon, the Republican and Independence Party candidate; Christina Fitch, the Conservative Party candidate; and attorney Michael Donnelly, the Green Party candidate.

Roberts is retired from General Motors, where he worked for 30 years as a tool and die maker, and is on leave from his job as superintendent of the Hughes State Office Building in Syracuse, a position to which he was appointed by then-Gov. Eliot Spitzer in 2007.

Roberts is the only one of the four candidates who has served in an elected position. He spent five terms in the Onondaga County Legislature.

He said he favors programs that will make the state “business friendly” but opposes initiatives, such as the former Empire Zone program, that give huge amounts of money to companies that create few jobs.

Sharon, 56, of DeWitt, said the enrollment advantage that Roberts has is “a little daunting.”

“Against an incumbent, it seemed to myself and virtually everyone else impossible,” he said. “An open seat gave it a little crack in the door, if you will.”

He said he’s trying to reach out to the district’s 19,360 registered voters who are not enrolled in a political party.

He, too, says his government experience — 33 years defending the county against claims and lawsuits — makes him the best candidate.

He said a top issue for him is getting the state to reduce its Medicaid costs. New York spends $52 billion — $1 billion a week — on Medicaid, more than California and Texas combined.

Fitch, 47, of Liverpool, ran for the Assembly seat as a Republican in 2008 but lost to Christensen. She said she does not agree with the conventional wisdom that “it’s a Democratic district no matter what.”

“There’s a lot of anger at Albany,” she said. “People want someone who is independent, not someone tied to special interests.”

She accused Roberts of being tied to New York City labor unions and politicians. She notes that Roberts paid the Working Families Party in Brooklyn $34,000 to send staff door-to-door in Syracuse campaigning for him during the Democratic primary.

She also accused him of being a slumlord, noting that rental property he owns on Onondaga Avenue has been cited by the city for excessive trash and weeds.

Fitch pointed out that Roberts was sued in 2006 by a Wood Avenue tenant who alleged that her infant children were exposed to lead paint. In 2008, Roberts’ insurance carrier settled the claim for $190,000, court records show.

Roberts called the allegations “a desperate, last-ditch effort to do a character assassination on me.”

He said the Working Families Party hired local residents to canvass for him during the primary. He said acquaintances he has with New York City politicians would not stop him from working for the interests of his district.

Trash often blows from the street onto his rental property, but his tenants quickly clean it up, Roberts said. He said he believes tenants were exposed to lead paint before he bought the Wood Avenue home, which he has since sold.

Michael Donnelly, 36, of DeWitt, the Green Party candidate, is making his first run for office. He said the state needs to create public jobs for the unemployed and make tuition at state colleges free for state residents and make no-interest loans to state residents who attend private colleges. He said the state could pay for the costs of the programs by creating higher tax rates for high-income residents.
The candidates